Last month I took a trip to MI for a variety of reasons, including several photo sessions & a wedding. :) And while I was there, I got the chance to do a session for this fun family! They even brought the family dog along for a few pictures; “Petey” is a Boston Terrier, which was fun for me, since we have a (much younger) Boston as well! It was neat to get an idea of what our little Guster might look like in a few years.

It’s always exciting to do a family session that includes young children. It’s a little bit different when you are just trying to photograph a young child on his own—you can focus all of your attention on keeping just one little person’s attention, making them smile & laugh, making eye contact, having fun… But when you mix up a couple young children into a family group, it gets a little more complicated! One of our biggest “complications” was losing little brother’s shoe in the creek… :)

His mom chased it down the creek a little ways, but it was moving too fast! Bye bye little shoe! :/

We tried to relax and just have a good time, and I think for the most part we succeeded!

I love the location we chose for their session. It was so green and peaceful (lost-shoe not included in that peaceful bit) ;) and I thought the images came out really lovely.

One day I would LOVE to have some portraits of my husband and me like this. :)

The kids had a really fun time coming up with ideas for their own photos, and changing their minds, and trying new things… ;) I like to keep the kids as involved in the process as I can; if a child is not 100% thrilled about the idea of family portrait time, letting them come up with some ideas of their own to contribute makes them feel like they are more in control of the process, and can help them feel more excited about it. :)

I really enjoyed looking back over these photos when I got home to Santa Fe; I did not/do not know the family SUPER well, but spending so much time studying them in the images we took made me feel like I knew them maybe a little bit better than before. :)

(Did I mention we spent a lot of time playing around and having fun??) :)

And finally, little Petey makes his appearance with the family… :)

Thanks again to the S Family for allowing me to have this session with you! It was a lot of fun, and I hope that the images will bring back good memories for years to come!!